Social media has often played an important role in on-ground reporting, coordinating relief efforts and fundraising during crisis situations, especially natural disasters like the South East Asia Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the China Earthquake.
Social media is playing an important role again in the Haiti earthquake (Wikipedia/ Mahalo), in all three areas.
– Global Voices is tracking on-ground reporting from Carribean bloggers and Twitter users on its Haiti special coverage page.
– Ushahidi has set up a micro-site to invite direct reports from Haiti and also track tweets, photos, videos and news items related to the earthquake.
– The Crisis Commons wiki is curating a great list of resources related to the Haiti earthquake.
– CNN, NYT, BBC, NPR and Global Voices have created Twitter lists to track Haitians and relief organizations who are tweeting about the relief efforts. The #haiti hashtag is a firehose of tweets related to the earthquake.
– NPR, Guardian, Washington Post, New York Times and Reuters used the live blog format to cover the emerging situation in Haiti. CNN iReport is asking viewers to share their experience of the quake and post photos of missing loved ones.
– mGive and American Red Cross have raised more than $5 million for Haiti relief efforts, with their “Text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to @RedCross relief” campaign out of a total of $35 million (source: NYT). Haiti born musician Wyclef Jean has raised more than $1 million by promoting his own “Text YELE to 501501″ campaign to his 1.3 million Twitter followers. MobileActive has links to several other short codes for donating money for Haiti relief efforts.
I have written before about how social media is changing the news lifecycle, especially in crisis situations. I am impressed by how news organizations are leveraging social media tools to aggregate, curate and report news about the Haiti earthquake in real time. Expect more news organizations to use tools like ScribbleLive, CoveritLive and Publish2 as a default from hereon.
As CEO of 2020 Social, I build and nurture online communities for Indian and international clients, connect their customers, partners and employees, and help them achieve their business objectives. Ask us how we can help you.
Related posts:
- Social Media & Citizen Journalism in the 11/26 Mumbai Terror Attacks: A Case Study
- Which is a Better Mobile Citizen Reporting Tool: Twitter or Ushahidi? (Updated)
- My Interview in Homeland Security Today on Social Media in Crisis Situations
